Present filament winding systems generally consist of winding fibrous rovings or tows impregnated with a thermosetting resin in a helical pattern in a number of superimposed layers onto a mandrel to produce a tubular article. In most types of filament winding operations, the rovings pass through a delivery eye or from a delivery roller across an air space onto the part. In this type of system, tows cannot be added or deleted during operation to adjust to the varying contours of the part being wound. Furthermore, this type of system does not permit precise location of tows onto the part. Conventional tape laying systems generally provide positioning of the rovings on flat or slightly contoured surfaces, however, these systems cannot wind continuously nor control band width.
The inability to alter bandwidth while winding parts with non-uniform cross-section, such as fusalages, tapered wing skins, domes or missile nose cones, results in overlapping or gapping of the winding band. The imprecise location of fiber tows on the part being wound causes a non-uniform winding pattern, which creates non-uniform structural properties in the finished article. The completed wound article may be deemed unsuitable for its expected use, resulting in the eventual scrapping of the entire article.